Shehnaz Haqqani, an assistant professor at Mercer University and author of "Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam," discusses the evolving landscape of Islamic law and gender. She highlights how certain legal rulings, like child marriage, can be negotiated, while others, such as women's interfaith marriages, face resistance. Haqqani emphasizes the importance of personal agency and the intersection of tradition with modern values, delving into the complexities of gender justice in contemporary Islam.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Unexpected Path to Islamic Studies
Shehnaz Haqqani's intellectual journey began when a humanities course challenged her conservative views on Islam.
This led to a spiritual crisis but ultimately inspired her to pursue Islamic Studies.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Family Disapproval
Haqqani's family disapproved of her pursuing a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies.
She persisted partly due to the fear of their disapproval if she quit.
insights INSIGHT
Negotiating Change in Islamic Law
Understanding how Muslims negotiate change in Islamic law requires examining both classical texts and contemporary views.
Haqqani's research compares textual sources with interviews to measure this change.
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Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam
Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam
Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender
Shehnaz Haqqani
Shehnaz Haqqani's book explores the dynamic interplay between feminism, Islamic tradition, and contemporary societal changes. It examines how interpretations of Islamic law regarding gender evolve over time, considering both historical texts and modern perspectives. The study uses qualitative interviews with Muslims in the US to understand how legal rulings are negotiated and resisted. Haqqani's work highlights the inherent flexibility within Islamic tradition while also critiquing the male-dominated scholarly consensus that often restricts this flexibility. The book offers valuable insights into the ongoing evolution of Islamic thought on gender and law.
Shehnaz Haqqani's new book Feminism, Tradition and Change in Contemporary Islam: Negotiating Islamic Law and Gender (Oneworld 2024), masterfully blends textual analysis of pre-modern and modern Islamic consensus with qualitative interviews with Muslims in the contemporary United States, to track how notions of what constitutes Islamic and Islamic tradition shift over time. We learn from her interlocutors that certain Islamic legal rulings can be negotiated, as in the case of child marriage, sexual slavery or even female inheritance, while other legal consensus, such as around women’s interfaith marriage or women leading mixed-gender prayers are not negotiable. Haqqani incisively swifts through these various standards of negotiations and arrives at how legal rulings pertaining to Muslim women’s experiences are met with resistance. It seems then that matters of urgency and relevance, which are inevitably political, dedicate when Islamic law and/or tradition can be negotiated. Haqqani’s book illuminates how Islamic tradition has always been flexible, but male dominated scholarly consensus still dedicates this flexibility (or rather inflexibility from an Islamic feminist perspective). This book will be of interest to those who think on gender, Islam, Islamic feminism, Islamic law, and much more.
Dr. Shehnaz Haqqani is an assistant professor at Mercer University and specialises in Islam, with a focus on gender and sexuality. She is a host of the podcast New Books Network.
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